Virtual Sit-Ins

[rdom <rdom@thing.net>]

[: hacktivism :]

February 14, 2000
http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/technology/daily/

                   Virtual Sit-Ins
                   The media has been filled
                   with speculation about the
                   motives of those who took
                   down some of the most
                   prominent sites on the Web last week.
                   Most observers pointed the finger at
                   Black-Hat hackers -- mischievous people
                   with time on their hands, few moral
                   standards, and something to prove.

                   But I have the distinct feeling that these
                   attacks are politically motivated. The
                   result of people who view the
                   commercialization of the Internet as
                   symbolic of everything they don't like
                   about the New Economy. What better
                   way to protest the huge amounts of
                   wealth being made by Internet
                   entrepreneurs than to clog up Buy.com's
                   site on the day of its initial public offering.
                   What better way to protest the growing
                   infatuation with money than to clog up
                   E*Trade. Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, CNN, all
                   symbols -- in the minds of some -- of
                   capitalism run amuck.

                   And there are growing numbers of people
                   out there who think like this. I heard some
                   of them on radio talk shows last week. No
                   one would come right out and say they
                   supported the cyber attacks, but there
                   was plenty of sympathy for them. These
                   are the same sorts of people that tried to
                   shut down Seattle protesting the World
                   Trade Organization.

                   William Gibson meets the Wobblies. The
                   sit-down strike adapted for the Web. Why
                   block traffic on a roadway when you can
                   do it easier, more effectively, and
                   anonymously, on the Internet? The
                   perpetrators of last week's events may
                   indeed turn out to be apolitical hackers.
                   Even if they are, I have no doubt that we
                   will see major cyber attacks mounted by
                   political activists in the future. In fact, it
                   has already begun to happen. Last year
                   eToys took legal action to shut down an
                   avant-garde art site called etoy.com. The
                   retailer eToys claimed its customers might
                   confuse the two sites. But eToys ignored
                   the fact that etoy had been in existence
                   before eToys was even founded.

                   The dispute was eventually settled, but
                   not before supporters of etoy.com
                   launched a concerted effort to drive down
                   eToys' stock price and disrupt its business
                   through a denial of service campaign.
                   Etoys stock dropped from $67 at the time
                   it filed suit against etoy, to $19 when it
                   finally dropped the suit. (The group that
                   organized the anti-eToys effort can be
                   found at www.rtmark.com. The site is full
                   of anti-corporate commentary.)

                   As far as I know, the etoy.com supporters
                   did not use the sophisticated, and
                   anonymous, software techniques
                   employed by last week's hackers. But the
                   intent was the same: denial of service.
                   Make it difficult for others to use the site.
                   Shut down the business.

                   Political movements have employed similar
                   civil actions for years. In the early part of
                   this century general strikes led by the
                   labor movement shut down San Francisco,
                   Seattle, and Minneapolis. Sit-down strikes
                   by auto workers taking over assembly
                   plants immobilized the auto industry.

                   The anti-war movement had its forms of
                   mass civil protest. Railroad tracks were
                   blockaded to stop munitions trains. The
                   March on Washington D.C. tried to shut
                   down the Pentagon. The civil rights
                   movement waged lunch counter sit-ins,
                   economic boycotts, and mass
                   demonstrations to achieve its goals.

                   There is a key difference between the
                   mass movements of the past, and the
                   cyber attacks of the today. General
                   strikes, economic boycotts, and sit-down
                   strikes only work with the support of large
                   numbers of people. One person could not
                   shut down an entire city. But one person,
                   along with an army of unthinking
                   computers, can shut down significant
                   portions of the Internet. That's the scary
                   part. When the Weathermen, a small
                   group of extremists, were bombing their
                   way through the 1960s and 1970s, they
                   had very little real impact on society.
                   They did create some psychological
                   terror, but in the end their efforts failed.

                   A similar small group today could cause
                   major economic havoc. Think of a
                   sophisticated group of hackers, with zeal
                   and political intent, launching cyber
                   attacks on companies and institutions
                   across the Internet.

                   An animal rights protester who lets a few
                   rats out of their cages may disrupt an
                   experiment or two, but consider the
                   impact of a cyber attack on Procter &
                   Gamble. A bomb outside the New York
                   Stock Exchange may garner some
                   headlines, but imagine the impact of a
                   concerted cyber attack on Nasdaq.

                   I'm not worried about legitimate political
                   and social organizations. I'm concerned
                   about extremists who believe that their
                   desperate actions are for the benefit of
                   society. With the Internet becoming more
                   and more central to our economic and
                   social lives, a small band of zealots can
                   have an outsized impact on all of us.


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